About 10 days ago I reported that my Treo 650 died of complications resulting from the 1.17 firmware update. I received my replacement Treo 650 through the Warranty Exchange program offered by Cingular about a week ago, and so far the new Treo has worked like a dream.
I had attempted to upgrade my old handset to 1.17 according to the directions provided by Palm and Cingular, but the firmware update didn’t go smoothly and I had to repeat the process more than once. The update made the old Treo very unreliable, resulting in periodic White Screens of Death when I ran the Chatter Email application on it.
Mark Blanc, the author of Chatter Email had suggested that there was no conflict between Chatter Email 1.1.4.3p and the 1.17 firmware. From what I’ve seen since I got my replacement Treo 650, he’s right.
Since I started using a Treo with the 1.17 firmware update, I’ve noticed much better support for my Motorola HS850 Bluetooth Headset. The Treo tries to connect to the headset whenever a call is placed or received. This makes a lot more sense than the previous behavior, which required me to press the action button on the side of the headset.
The lesson I’ve learned from my firmware update failure is this: from now on I’m only doing a firmware update if the performance enhancements offered by the update specifically address a problem I’ve recently experienced with my Treo. In other words, I’m not doing anymore updates just to stay current.
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